David Porter

Google’s Keyword Tool

porter416 — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:55:34 +0000

As we discussed in the workshops, key words are one of the many ways that various search engines look for your site on the web. One of the easier ways to make sure your keywords match the popular search phrases is to use Google’s keyword tool. When you enter a phrase e.g. “photographer” and hit the “Get keyword ideas” button, you can see what phrases are being used to search for photographers. You don’t have to buy any ads to use this tool. All you need is a Google account.

Once you have chosen these keywords, you can normally enter them in the LightRoom plug-ins you are using to create your portfolio site. (For those who are looking for my photography web site, go to www.porterspixels.com)

Websites and SEO for photographers workshop

porter416 — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 02:37:45 +0000

Thanks to all those who showed up on Tuesday and made our session a great success! For those who missed it, I shared the SEO tips I learned while getting my own photography sites up and going for Porter’s Pixels.

Helping people setup their sites

We had a good turn out for a snowy February night and covered how to get your sites setup. Our workshop included getting everyone to setup a blog account and making their first posts. We followed that up by high lighting techniques to promote your page (for free!).

Thanks to Alan at Refraction Arts for hosting.

Websites and SEO for photographers workshop – February 2

porter416 — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:07:00 +0000

On February 2, I’m conducting a workshop to get more Toronto photographers online. The course covers the following topics:

How to setup a site quickly
Have a site that’s easy to maintain so you keep people coming back to your site
Know how to optimize your site so your clients can find you – for free
Post password protected portfolios for clients online – cuts down on your travel time
Learn how to use (free) social media tools that are at your finger tips to promote your site
How to have a clean professional looking site

This is a website workshop geared for photo geeks, not computer geeks. The idea is to get you up and running with a professional looking web site that’s easy for you to maintain. Your clients will have a better chance of being able to find you in Google and you’ll be able to show them your portfolio online.

It’s not hard if you know how. I have a background in taking complicated computer items and breaking them down into easy to use pieces for the rest of us.

In November 2009, I wasn’t even on page 10 of Google search results. Search on David Porter Toronto right now and see where I rank now. Didn’t cost me anything. Contact me if you’re interested in learning how to get started and attending my workshop.

Toronto Help-Portrait

porter416 — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:06:00 +0000

On Saturday December 12, a group of Torontonians went over the Sanctuary as part of Jeremy Cowart’s Help-Portrait effort. Help-Portrait is an initiative started by Jeremy down in the US as part of an effort to help some disadvantaged people feel better about themselves. Groups of photographers, make-up artists and computer people showed up to take photos and print them for free.

The Sanctuary provides Street Outreach, Employment Training and a Health Clinic among other programs in downtown Toronto. They had distributed some fliers for us on Tuesday and Thursday nights when they serve food to help us promote the idea. None of us were certain what the turnout would be on Saturday, but it was easy to find out where to go with the number of people with tripods and light stands were going up Yonge Street. (It almost looked like a TPMG event….or a Toronto Strobist group).

As it turned out, I took several portraits of people who were, mostly; very shy and appreciative they’d get a photo to show to whoever was important in their lives. I was stunned at the effort some of these people made to get themselves cleaned up so they would have a great of photo of themselves to give. These people may be having a rough time of it, but they still have their pride ~~damnit~~.

One very dapper gentleman showed up in a suit that that was a few sizes too large for him and wanted to make sure his picture included highlighting his well worn penny loafers. We had to rush to get him his print as they were serving food in another mission on Saturday and he didn’t want to be late
Another gentleman spent some time getting his hair cleaned up and looked very spiffy in order to have a picture to send to his mother for Christmas
A woman who showed up had a clean dress in one of her plastic bags, changed from some well worn clothes into her dress, got made up and had some wonderful portraits to send to her Mom

As the pictures were taken and printed, you could see people’s appreciation. It was truly heart warming and I was honored to be a small part of it.

CNN ran with the story on Sunday and you can view it below. Canada AM interviewed a few people from the Toronto effort on December 14 but I haven’t seen the video online yet. If someone does, I’ll post it here too.

Help Portrait – December 12

porter416 — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:51:00 +0000

The first meetup of the Toronto Help Portrait happened tonight. This is an idea for photographers in a number of cities to take pictures of people in need to make them feel a bit better. Think about it, a single mother at a food bank, a lonely person feeling down. We’re reaching out to them to try and make them feel better. This video shows how some photographers down in Nashville accomplished this.

I guess there were about 6 of us meeting up and trying to decide where to go to photograph people. After some deliberation, we decided on a mission in downtown Toronto that provides food to the needy. I saw some pictures of the amazing hall we can use and heard that people normally come in on Tuesday’s (women only) and Thursday’s (everybody).

The volunteers are willing to help us promote this event and provide food to people on December 12. All in so far we have 4 make up artists and potentially 10 others (photographers / computer geeks who know Adobe).

We are looking for some sponsors to help us with the printing of the photos so we can hopefully provide these people with their photos at the same time. If you think you can help or have an idea, please contact me.